The subject matter described and/or illustrated herein relates generally to connector assemblies having a communication connector that is configured to align with and engage another connector during a mating operation.
Some communication systems, such as a blade server system, include a large backplane (or midplane) circuit board, which is generally referred to as a backplane (or midplane). The system also includes a plurality of communication devices (e.g., switch modules) that are coupled to a front side of the backplane, and a plurality of communication devices that are coupled to a back side of the backplane. The devices coupled to the front side extend parallel to each other, but orthogonal to the devices coupled to the back side of the backplane. For example, the devices along the front side may extend vertically, and the devices along the back side may extend horizontally. The front side devices and the back side devices are communicatively coupled to one another through the backplane.
The front side and/or back side devices typically include a module card (e.g., a circuit board) with a number of connector assemblies mounted to a leading edge of the module card. The devices are configured to be inserted into a system chassis where the connector assemblies are coupled to mating connectors of the backplane during a mating operation. However, as the number of connector assemblies along the leading edge increases, it may become more challenging to align each of the connector assemblies with a corresponding mating connector due to tolerances in the manufacturing of the module cards, the connector assemblies, the mating connectors, the system chassis, or other components of the system.
The challenge can be even greater in blade server systems where there is no backplane or midplane circuit board and the devices are directly engaged to each other. For instance, each device that extends vertically can be directly coupled to several devices that extend horizontally, and each device that extends horizontally can be directly coupled to several devices that extend vertically.
Accordingly, there is a need for connector assemblies that are capable of tolerating misalignment between two communication connectors during a mating operation.